He wasn’t finished with me and in seconds he’d pushed me to the brink again. I clenched down on his fingers as I came. Even after the ripples of aftershocks receded, he kept them still, but deep within. The pleasure, the stinging pain all coalesced and I cried again, tears I hadn’t allowed to fall for years poured from my body like acid. I let it all out: grief over the death of my brothers and then my father, fear that I’d lose Seth, the stress of command, guilt over the men I’d lost in combat. It felt as if a lifetime of bottled pain exploded from me.
He slipped his fingers from me and pulled me into his arms, hugging me close. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been hugged, the last time I’d truly been held. Sure, I’d had sex before, but it had been fairly emotionless, more hot release than true, intimate connection. My father had kept me at arm’s length, for he had not been a coddler. With three older brothers and no mother around, there had been no emotion, no tenderness in our house. It was more a Lord of the Flies existence, where only the strong survived. I’d never regretted my life, or my decisions. But being here, in Dax’s arms, made me tired, mentally and emotionally exhausted in a way I’d never allowed myself to feel, in a way it had never been safe to feel.
How had one big brute of a space alien seen past my armor—and it wasn’t the warrior clothing I was referring to—and known what I needed more. I was strong, perhaps too strong, and it had taken him all of ten minutes to crack me open like an egg.
Even against the hard plate of his chest armor, I could hear his heart beating. I was, for once, calm and remarkably at peace. Nothing was going to happen to me right now. I was safe and my mind was quiet.
“Better?” he asked, once my crying jag subsided.
“Better,” I replied. My body was soft and pliant, my ass fiery hot and sore. But I felt like someone was paying attention to me, for me. I didn’t know how, but I’d needed that spanking. Analyzing my reactions would just make me crazy, so I resigned myself to figuring that all out later.
I stiffened in his hold and realized my ass was sticking out. I tugged up my pants and fixed the fastening, once again putting myself to rights. I tried to walk away, shame chasing the contented glow from my mind the moment I’d lost his touch, but he stopped me with a hand on my chin, lifting my face to look at him.
“Watching you come is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” His thumb stroked my cheek and I couldn’t help it, I leaned into his touch as he continued. “You are mine. You will never be alone, never sleep alone, never fight alone. You are mine and I will never leave you.”
“Dax. I can’t think about that right now. I just can’t. I have to save Seth.”
“We will save Seth.”
“Okay. We will save Seth.” As much as I hated to admit it, having him help me was a huge relief.
“And then you will come home with me and we will begin a new life.”
I nodded, unable to deny him right now. All my carefully constructed walls were gone, torn down by my new mate with his strength and iron will.
“Good, because I want your throaty little sighs of pleasure just for my ears. Your pussy walls all but milked my fingers, but I want to feel you come on my tongue. I want to taste your mouth and your pussy. I want to hold you down and fill you with my cock until you beg me for release, and I want to make you come over and over until you beg me to stop.”
Holy shit, that was hot. Dax was blatant and completely unashamed in his desire for me. I’d never felt anything more real, more intense.
I felt his cock, hard and thick, against my belly. “What… um, what about you?”
He held up my hand and traced a path of dried blood that colored my skin, a reminder of all that we’d done today. “The mating fever could come upon me at any time. When it comes, my actions may be beyond my will to control. Just know that you are the only one who can soothe it. I will fight not to take you if you are resistant, but my life will be in your hands. You may have to take me.”
I imagined him flat on his back as I rode him like a wild woman, his cock thick and deep as I ground my hips against his, taking what I wanted from him. I couldn’t shake the idea of having this strong, powerful warlord on his back and between my thighs, mine to take. When he added a sly grin at the end of his declaration, I knew that while he was serious, he was also flirting. This big space alien covered in Hive blood was actually flirting with me. For once, I had no comeback.
* * *
Sarah
A sound woke me. I stared into the darkness trying to figure out what it was, where I was. I had on the usual tank top and shorts, my normal sleeping gear. The bed was soft and the constant hum of the ship’s systems didn’t allow me to forget I was no longer on Earth.
There, I heard it again. Someone was in the room.
“Lights, half power.”
The room brightened.
It all came back to me in a quick rush. I was in temporary housing quarters with my new mate, waiting for the magnetic storm to clear so we could transport. The room only had the one bed, no couch or other chair, forcing us to share. I was unaccustomed to sleeping with a man—usually a one-night stand didn’t include a sleepover. But this wasn’t a quick roll in the hay, this was my mate, and I’d fallen asleep with his huge body wrapped protectively around mine. While the bed was large, so was Dax, and I’d given up protesting when he pulled me against him and drifted to sleep.
Now, though, the sheets were a wild tangle. I was in bed but Dax was sitting on the floor in the corner. His hands were clenched into fists, his neck was arched, his bare chest glistened with sweat and his fingers tapped out a frantic pace against the floor.
“Don’t move. I won’t be able to save you,” he growled.
Worry cut through me but I stilled. “What’s wrong? A nightmare?” I knew many fighters who struggled with nightmares from the horrors of battle.
“The fever. Don’t come closer unless you want me balls deep and out of control.”
I remembered the strength he’d displayed as he grabbed the Hive soldier and ripped his head off. I worried my lower lip between my teeth as I wondered just how dangerous he was. “Do you think you’ll hurt me?”